stickleback

any of a family (Gasterosteidae, order Gasterosteiformes) of small, bony-plated, marine and freshwater bony fishes with two to eleven sharp spines in front of the dorsal fin: the male builds a nest for the female's eggs

Origin of stickleback

Middle English stykylbak ; from Old English sticel, a prick, sting ; from base of sticca (see stick) + Middle English bak, back

stickleback

noun

Any of various small freshwater and marine fishes of the family Gasterosteidae, having erectile spines along the back.

Origin of stickleback

Middle English stikelbak : Old English sticel, prick; see steig- in Indo-European roots + Middle English bak, back; see back1.

Sentence Examples

8, D) capable of living freely in water for at least a week (Bothriocephalus), which then, if eaten by a stickleback, throws off its ciliated envelope, and creeps by the aid of the hooks through the intestinal wall into the body-cavity of the fish.

The development the Stickleback; emb.

STICKLEBACK, the name applied to a group of small fishes (Gastrosteus) which inhabit the fresh and brackish waters as well as the coasts of the temperate zone of the northern hemisphere.

Of the species known not one has so wide a geographical range, and has so well been studied, as the common British threespined stickleback (Gastrosteus aculeatus).

The ten-spined stickleback (Gastrosteus pungitius) is so called from the number of spines usually composing its first dorsal fin, which, however, may be sometimes reduced to eight or nine or increased to eleven.